ABSTRACT
In 1977 Bonnefoy committed to paper an idea which had been gestating inside him for some time. Its origin was an article he had read about the discovery of a brickedup room in a chateau in Prague that contained numerous forgotten masterpieces. So evocative was this event and the rêverie it inspired that, many years later, Bonnefoy found himself compelled to confront and articulate his powerful response. Structurally, one can see how Bonnefoy's récit en rêve appeals quite clearly to the Derridean economy of the supplement. The supplement is the additional extra that turns out always to be essential to the original project, and this again and again. The supplement is scandalous, according to Derrida, because it undermines any possible belief in wholeness, sufficiency or self-presence; the original, no matter how perfect it looks, can always be supplemented.
